


Inked

by NorthernSerpent



Series: Falice: From A to Z [9]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, No Black Hood, Not Canon Compliant, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-19
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-07-14 05:12:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16033670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthernSerpent/pseuds/NorthernSerpent
Summary: The universe declares Alice and FP as soulmates and nobody is happy about this.Falice Soulmate AU.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm fully embracing the AU side of things. Unless I say otherwise, just assume it didn't happen.

“You're unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable.” 

That was all Hal had to say as he stormed out of the master bathroom. Alice hurried after him, clutching her baby blue towel around herself. Her wet hair stuck to the back of her neck and a small trail of droplets followed her every movement. 

“Hal, please. Don't be mad,” she pleaded desperately. “I didn't even know it was there!”

Hal couldn’t even bring himself to look at his wife. “You didn't notice the gigantic snake tattoo down your side?” 

“It honestly just appeared,” she said weakly. It didn’t sound good but it was the truth.

She had stepped into the shower half asleep, only noticing the large snake slithering down her right side when she ran the loofah over her body. 

She shrieked. There was no other suitable reaction.

Hal came running in to find her twisting around to better view her newest acquisition. It was similar to the one she already had on her right thigh - the one that symbolized regret and teenage stupidity.

They were both Serpent tattoos. And she knew exactly who was dumb enough to get a monstrous serpent that covered half his torso.

Unfortunately, so did her husband. 

Hal pulled out a suitcase from the closet and laid it out on the bed. Without hesitation, he grabbed a handful of his dress shirts and haphazardly threw them in. 

“Hal, what are you doing?” Alice asked. Her voice was so small. So confused. She couldn’t quite grasp at what was happening in front of her. Dress pants and ties were next on the pile.

“Packing,” Hal rifled through the dresser and tossed socks and underwear into the suitcase. 

“No,” Tears formed in the corners of her eyes but Alice refused to let them fall. “I didn’t marry FP. I married you. I chose you, Hal.”

Hal looked up at her for the first time since he stormed into their bedroom. His anger was momentarily replaced with sadness. “Alice, I can’t trust that you’ll always pick me.”

“We have a family! Think about Polly and Betty,” Alice pleaded. “We can make this work.”

“Your matching tattoos say otherwise,” Hal averted his gaze, instead choosing to focus on shutting the overstuffed suitcase. “The universe has declared FP Jones as your soulmate. I’m not about to stick around to see how this plays out.”

“That's- That’s-” Alice took a deep breath. “That’s not how it works.”

They had both heard of it. Everybody was familiar with bits and pieces of stories of two people marked by destiny. History was littered with legends of couples connected by matching bruises, tattoos and other markings. Alice’s favourite soulmate story was of Cleopatra’s asp bite that also appeared on Mark Antony’s body. 

Nobody knew what triggered the connection. Environmental factors? Age? It seemed to usually affect 20-somethings but that wasn’t a hard rule. Not to mention, only a select portion of the population was affected in the first place. 

Of course, the markings did not necessarily mean happily-ever-after. Alice would know. Her parents were soulmates and they didn’t particularly like each other. 

It would seem she was following in their footsteps.

“What are you doing?” Polly’s soft voice floated into the room.

Hal and Alice turned their heads to see their two young daughters popped their little heads into the room. Betty was barely a head taller than the doorknob, while her elder sister had only a few inches on her. They both surveyed the disaster on the bed.

“Is Dad going on another trip?” Betty asked, frowning. 

Alice’s breath hitched. “Yes, Elizabeth. Only for a little while. He’ll be back soon.”

The girls accepted this, Polly more-so than Betty. Hal was always going on business trips, always chasing a story while Alice provided edits and played house by herself.

Hal zipped up the suitcase. He leaned down and hugged the girls. “I love you, girls. More than anything.”

And then he was gone.

 

-

At first, it was easy to pretend that he life wasn’t crumbling around her. The girls were none-the-wiser. Hal left often enough that his absence was a normal occurrence.

Alice refused to look too much into that. It didn’t matter that she slept better without Hal’s snoring. Or that the girls were better behaved when didn’t have a chance to undermine her by running to their father for a second opinion. 

She plastered a smile on her face, refused to cry, make some cookies. Everything was normal. Everything was fine.

The scars on her knees were hers and hers alone, even though she could only account for half of them. The ones she couldn’t remember were probably from falling off her bike. 

And the mole on her left buttcheek was definitely always there. 

(At least that’s what she made herself believe.)

-

It was when the other soulmarks appeared one week later that it all hit her.

She was reading the girls a bedtime story when Betty caught her mother’s hand.  
“Mom! You’re bleeding!” she cried.

Polly gasped. “Are you okay?” she jumped out of bed and scurried to the bathroom. “I’ll go find bandaids.”

Alice hadn’t felt anything. She had barely felt anything all day. She was physically and emotionally numb.

She turned her hand in the light. Sure enough, her knuckles were busted open.

Idiot.

FP was probably making a ruckus in the Southside and now she had to bare the consequences.

“It’s nothing,” she tried to reassure her daughters. “It looks worse than it is.”

Polly froze in the doorway! “Mom! Your lip!”

Alice brushed a tentative finger over her bottom lip. “It’s fine,” she said. “I must have bitten it by accident.”

That was a lie. But it was a lie her 7 and 8 year-olds didn’t question.

 

-

 

Of course she wondered about FP. 

It was hard not to with the amount of bruises that now littered her body. There was a fist-sized mark under her ribs. Another gash down her leg. Her knuckles were looking much better. He must have been healing nicely.

She wondered if he noticed her own small contribution - the small purple mark on her hip from bumping into a desk.

And sometimes when it was too dark and too quiet in her large empty bed, she let herself contemplate the possibility of talking to FP for the first time in 10 years. According to Hal, it was the will of the universe.

Fuck Hal. Fuck that thought.

But then she awoke with a purple mark under her left eye that no amount of makeup was able to hide.

She ran a careful finger over the bruise, and winced in the mirror.

Fuck FP. 

He needed to get his act together. Enough was enough.


	2. Chapter 2

In the yellow glow of the streetlight permeating their open blinds, Gladys Jones was the first to notice. In between sloppy kisses and hushed giggles, the married couple took the rare opportunity to enjoy each other.

“Well this is new,” Gladys’ eyes twinkled with starlight as she tugged down FP’s boxers.

“Less talking, more kissing,” FP mumbled, peppering kisses along her shoulder. With a 7 year-old and an infant in the next room, these quiet moments were very hard to come by.

Gladys swatted him away and rolled over to turn on the bedside lamp.

“I’m serious, FP,” she frowned, and FP sat up straight, suddenly aware of the gravity of the situation. “This wasn’t here before.”

“Did you find a weird mole or something?” FP twisted to better view whatever it was that got his wife in a tizzy. There, slithering down his right hip and onto his upper thigh was a snake. One that very closely resembled the snake with which he chose to mark his skin.

“Fuck.”

He knew that tattoo. He was there when she got it and she crushed his fingers as the artist inked her.

Gladys reached for the t-shirt she had discarded earlier and put it on, then wrapped her arms self-consciously around herself. “It’s Alice Cooper’s, isn’t it?”

“I guess it could be,” FP continued to stare at his side, mouth agape. This couldn’t be happening. “It could be any Serpent, really.”

“Just not me.”

Her words cut right through him. “Gladys’-”

“Save it, FP,” she snapped. She was trying her best to hold onto some shred of dignity. “Are you in love with her?

“Christ, Gladys. How can you even ask me that? You know I hate her guts,” he blinked. How was this a conversation they were having? He had barely spoken to Alice in the last 15 years, yet she somehow managed to stick herself in the middle of his life. “Yeah we were friends in high school, but then she turned out to be a hypocritical nutjob.”

 

Gladys seemed to consider this. “Do you love me?”

“Of course I do!” FP protested. “Gladys, we’re a family.”

“Is that enough? Will it be enough?”

FP wrapped his tearful wife in his arms. “We’ll make it work. I promise.”

-

They didn’t.

By the end of the first week, Gladys, plagued with doubts and insecurities, packed her bags and her kids to visit her parents in Toledo.

“It’s temporary,” she told him. She probably hoped it was true. Maybe she believed that space would do them some good.

“It’s only two weeks,” he replied automatically. “It’ll be good for Jug and Jellybean to spend time with your family.”

That was what he kept telling himself.

Jughead and Jellybean may come back, but he lost Gladys the night the soulmarks appeared.  
His family drove away, and FP headed to the bar.

What else was there to do now but drink?

-

“FP I know you’re in there!” someone yelled as they banged furiously on his door.

Groaning, FP buried his pounding head further into his pillow. Everything hurt. His head, his face, his back...

He had no idea what time it was, but it had to be too early for him to have already pissed somebody off.

“Don’t make me break down your door, so help me God.”

“Fine!” he shouted at the intruder, flinching at his own loud voice. He stumbled to the door and unlocked it to find a very unamused Alice Cooper. “Christ, Alice. How do you know where I live?”

If he wasn’t so exhausted and hungover, he would have found the sight of her endlessly amusing. The mighty Alice Cooper was still in her silk pajamas with her pants tucked into bright pink rain boots. FP could feel her glare through her mirrored sunglasses.

“Yellow pages,” Alice stated flatly. “I’m coming in.”

Ever since his family had left, time had been elusive, but he knew it must have been almost two weeks since the soulmarks had first appeared.

“Are we seriously doing this now?” FP rubbed his temples and stepped to the side.

Alice didn’t reply. They both knew he didn’t have much say in the matter.

She entered into the small home and FP shut the door behind her bracing himself for the judgemental onslaught he was going to receive. Empty beer cans were scattered in the living room, and there was a tower of takeout containers on the coffee table. It looked like a hurricane had passed through.

Alice pushed her sunglasses onto her head, revealing a nasty shiner on her left cheek, just under her bloodshot eye.

“What happened?” FP demanded. “Who hurt you? Did Hal do this?”

“Are you still drunk?” Alice laughed bitterly. She waved at the bruise. “This was all you, FP.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Let me break it down for you,” she sighed dramatically. “Like every night this week, you got shitfaced at the Wyrm last night. And like every night, your fists crossed paths with the wrong crowd. Only last night, instead of being punched in the stomach, somebody got you in the face.”

FP blinked and brought a hand up to his own bruise he hadn’t really acknowledged. “You get my bruises.”

He knew about the tattoo, but he hadn’t really been paying much attention otherwise.

“Bruises, broken skin, your Serpent tattoo…FP I can’t go around town all banged up with bloodshot eyes!” Alice cried. “On my way here, Tom Keller searched my car for drugs!”

“Sorry,” he said because he didn’t know what else to say. “Does it hurt?”

“No. Thank God. The aftermath is bad enough,” she sighed. “FP, you can’t keep living like this.”

“I’ll try harder not to sully your perfect skin.”

“It goes both ways, dimwit,” Alice snapped. Then uncertainty flickered in her eyes. “Unless…”

For every romantic tale that ended in happily-ever-after, there were stories of the ones who had an unrequited soulmate. A soulmate who could not be tied back.

A lesser man would have taken the out. Instead, FP tugged on his waistband and lowered it slightly to show of the top of the copy of her tattoo. “Unfortunately for you, you’re tied to me. I wouldn’t go buying lottery tickets today.”

“Where’s Gladys?” Alice asked suddenly, looking around.

“Toledo,” FP scratched the back of his neck. “She took the kids to visit her parents.”

“Is she coming back?”

“I don’t know.”

“That sucks,” she said.

“How’s Hal?” FP shot back.

Alice shrugged. “Don’t know.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah well, it was only a matter of time,” Alice shifted uncomfortably. “I’m sure it would have happened even without you as my soulmate.”

FP flinched at her casual usage of the terminology. “What do you want from me, Alice? We knew each other in high school, but that was a long time ago. You know as well as I do that soulmates aren’t always meant to be together.”

“I don’t want anything,” she protested firmly. “I just came by to tell you to be more careful. I can’t afford to run around town looking like an addict. We are connected by the marks on our skin and nothing else.”

“I want to work things out with Gladys,” he blurted. “Get my family back, you know?”

“Exactly,” Alice nodded enthusiastically. “I’m so relieved we’re on the same page.”

FP tilted his head. “Does this mean you’re going to be nice to me?”

“Don’t push your luck,” Alice placed her sunglasses back on her nose. “I think my work here is done. Good luck with your family.”

“Good luck with yours,” FP nodded cordially. “Maybe I’ll see you around, Alice.”

“Yeah. Maybe.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay. The rest of this story got away from me and needed a major retooling. Enjoy!

Polly Cooper was only eighteen months older than her sister. Apparently that small age gap gave her misguided wisdom which she took upon herself to pass down to Betty. 

Puberty made it exponentially worse.

She had boy bands plastered on her walls, hearts scribbled all over the inside covers of her notebooks, and her favourite movie was _ The Notebook _ .

Thank God Betty knew to bite her tongue while Polly swooned over Edward Cullen. (Betty was more into Nancy Drew anyway.) Alice was grateful that she only had to deal with one love-song obsessed daughter. 

“Isn't that so romantic?” Polly would sigh. 

Alice would try her best to keep from rolling her eyes. Sometimes she succeeded. “That's not how the world works.”

Which was a perfectly fine reply until Polly discovered how to navigate forums and blogs where people would post to find their soulmate connection. She melted at the stories of people dropping everything to move across the world to meet their soulmate. 

“Why would anybody risk that? What if doesn't work out?” 14 year old Betty asked.

“But Betty,” Polly smiled wistfully, “what if it does?”

 

-

Polly thought soulmarks were beautiful. A gift to be treasured.

Alice wished they were a gift she could return. Or at least something she could re-gift to Gladys since the raven haired woman would know what to do with it.

From what her sources told her, after getting back from Toledo, FP and Gladys decided to keep trying. The trail of hickeys on her neck confirmed the story. She had to dab the love bites she hadn't earned with her concealer. Alice’s makeup budget had tripled since the dumb connection was established. 

Alice supposed that she should be happy that at least one of them managed to get their house in order. At least she wasn't waking up with bruised knuckles anymore. 

Instead, she woke up in a house devoid of Hal's things. No suits in her closet, no aftershave on her bathroom counter. No more boxes and boxes of old Cooper home-videos and pictures dating back 50 years.

Hal got  _ The Register _ . 

Alice got the house and full custody and gladly took her severance pay.

Jobs would come and go, but her daughters would always be her number one priority. 

 

-

 

Hal may have had the power to fire her, but he couldn’t take away her words. She had a few freelance jobs over the years. She wrote few fluff pieces for papers in Greendale and Centreville, contributed to mommy blogs. But she had bills to pay so she took a public relations job in the Mayor’s Office and in her rare spare time, Alice yelled into the void of the internet. 

That was her life. It wasn’t perfect, but it was hers. Everything was fine. 

At least until Gladys split again.

 

-

 

Alice woke up on a Saturday morning to a pillow smacking her in the face. “What the-”

“Mom, why are you still in bed?” Polly cried. She and Betty were already wearing their soccer uniforms. “We’re going to be late to the tournament because of you!”

Shit. She slept in. She never sleeps in.

Recognizing her error, she immediately rolled out of bed and beelined for the closet. 

“I’m so sorry! I must have forgotten to set an alarm!”

She could feel Betty watching her with eyebrows knitted together in a deep frown.

“Mom, are you okay?” Betty asked.

“Of course, Elizabeth. Just a little frazzled. I can not believe I slept in,” she smiled brightly while pulling out a blouse. “Why do you ask?”

“It’s just that your eyes…” Betty trailed off and waved a hand across her own face. “Have you been crying?”

Alice froze. “Shit.”

Before Polly or Betty could register what was happening, Alice bolted to the vanity to inspect her face. 

Eyes red, blotchy… swollen…Not again.

“God damn it!” she cried and collapsed on her stool. It had been ages since she had had to hide his bruises. Why did it have to happen today? Today when she had to go and pretend to like all the other soccer moms at the tournament. 

She hysterically started lifting her sleeves, inspecting her arms for any cuts or bruises. She lifted her pant legs to find a few bruises, but nothing too severe requiring medical attention. He probably just tripped over himself in another drunken stupor. 

She yanked her shirt off.

“Mom! What the hell?” Polly exclaimed. “You have a giant tattoo? Since when?” Alice ignored her as she tried to check the mirror over her shoulder. 

“Polly…” realization dawned on Betty. “I don’t think that’s mom’s tattoo.”

“Can one of you check my back?” Alice pleaded desperately. “I can’t see.”

Betty stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her hysterical mother. “It’s okay, mom. There’s nothing else.”

“He scares me sometimes,” Alice mumbled into her daughter’s shoulder. Her voice was so small, even to her ears. “He’s such an idiot and I worry about him.”

Polly starred. “You have a soulmate? Do you know who it is?”

“Polly!” Betty shot her sister a look. “Now isn’t the time!”

Alice shook her head firmly. “It doesn't matter who he is. He's not a part of our lives and he’s not going to be.”

“Why not?” Polly asked obtusely.

“Because it would never work!” Alice snapped. “We’re too different. It would be a disaster.”

“Mom, I can’t believe you,” Polly surveyed her mother in disgust. “I would kill to meet my soulmate and you won’t even give yours a shot.”

  
  


-

 

One year later, Polly was pregnant and was convinced she was in love. She was waiting for when her own soulmarks would appear.

Polly had always been an affectionate kid, and her head was always full of dreams so Alice wondered if she should have seen it coming.

Alice did not take the news well. 

She screamed and she cried and asked “ _ How could you, Polly? I thought I raised you better than this! You could have been so much more than another statistic. Now you’re the town bicycle. _ ” 

She regretted it as soon as she heard what she was saying. She brought a hand to her mouth, wishing she could swallow her words back in. 

Polly stood tall, shoulders back, looking at her with such  _ hatred _ in her green eyes. “I’m moving out.”

“What, are you shacking up with Jason Blossom now?” Alice spat.

“No, I’m moving in with Dad.”

Her Dad. Hal Cooper. The man who had so easily walked away. The same man who brought his daughters to Pop’s after dance class once a week and spent time with them on the weekends that was most convenient for him. 

Alice made every meal, stayed up late helping with assignments, cleaned up their scrapes and bruises. And Alice was the one to distract them from their disappointment when Hal realized he double-booked himself again. 

Polly choosing him was a punch in the gut.

“You want to live with your dad? Why?”

“Because, mom, he doesn’t make feel like a terrible person.”

She watched helplessly as her daughter chose Hal. Decided to let Polly live out this little experiment before coming home again.

Two weeks later, and Polly still stubbornly refused. It was only when Betty made a comment during dinner about Polly cutting class that Alice found herself marching into the Register’s Office for the first time since the divorce. The dark street was illuminated by the lights inside the building. 

“Why isn’t Polly going to school?” Alice demanded with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Hal didn’t even look up from the papers he was sorting on his desk. “She’s sixteen and pregnant. You of all people should know that she has other things on her mind.”

"What the hell does that mean?" Alice narrowed her eyes. The air around her was sizzling. “Where is Polly?”

“Don’t worry, Alice She’s getting the help she needs,” he answered flippantly.

“Hal, if you sent our daughter Sisters of Quiet Mercy without consulting me, so help me God.”

Hal calmly met her furious gaze. “We both agreed that it’s for the best.”

Numb from his blunt words slicing her heart, Alice stood, turned on her heel and walked out into the night. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a brick lying along the sidewalk. As though her body had been possessed, she picked it up and aimed it and all her frustrations through the window.

“I want my daughter back, you bastard!”

Hal jumped back as shards of glass exploded everywhere. “What the fuck, Alice?”

Alice pointed a shaking finger at her ex-husband. “Polly will come home tomorrow, or the next brick I throw will be at your face.”


End file.
